Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1887-09-14
&eadiug.
WHY Is FARMING IMPROBABLE ?
THE FARMERS OF THE SOUTH At THE
MERCY OF THE MONEY KINGS.

&A&s - oVkS&oSA 90
address at the above meeting, and the
subject assigned him was the following
"Causes of general failure on part of farm
ers of North and South Carolina to make
farming a profitable occupation"
Mr.. Patterson said : The subject as
stated assumes that farming in the two
sister States is Improbable. 1t is one on
which different opinions are honestly en-
tertained. One who asserts that farming
is profitable, might argumentatively ask,
SIS not the labor nov applied to agrlcul,
ture IS great as at any previous period OF
our history? Answer, eyes" "Is not
the intelligence directing that labor as
great as any previous period OF our hlsto-
ry 2" Answer, "Greater." "Does not the
aggregate product of the soil at the present
equal the aggregate product at any previ-
GUS period of our history?" Answer,
"Greater-greater per capita even." us
not the general wealth of the country in
creasing from year to year III q ratio
equal to or greater than the increase in pop
ulation ?" Answer, eyes" Then how
can you say that farming is not profitable
The answer is, ''It is profitable. 1t does
add from year to year to the general
wealth, but the farmers do not get it,"
SHOW do you make this to APPEAR
There is no general diffusion of growing
wealth throughout the country. The far
mers as a class are not growing rich. A
few, it is true, increase their estates, but
on inquiry it will be found that the pros
porous farmers own and cultivate the
best land-are free from debt-have surplus
on hand with which to buy all supplies
for the farm at the lowest cash prices-and
are men of intelligence and great energy;
VYy:kl~ 49, ~ oorifol infolIi pQnnp 0n6
energy applied to other industrial pursuits,
their profits would be much larger. And
hence it is that most men OF means
prefer to put their money in bonds and
mortgages at stated interest, or to buy
good lands at sacrifice sales and rem them
to tenants at a fixed rental. The profits
thus realized are as great or greater thar
farming and it is attended with less risk
and much less labor. And for the same
reason our young men, just entering upon
practical life, press into other pursuits I'LL
they are filled to repletion, enticed, no
doubt, thereto by the prospects OF larger
profits with less chances for failure.
If it be true, then, that the mature men
of clear intellect and possessed of accunu-
lated means, and also the aspiring young
men, full of vigor, are retreating from ag-
riculture, when its aggregate product ex-
ceeds that of any previous period of our
history, and when, too, the general wealth
of the country in its increase is keeping
step with the march of production, the
conclusion is forced upon us that the profit
of farming drops out somewhere between
the producer and the consumer, where
does it drop out? Where are the leaks!
There may be many but only two will
be emphasized on this occasion, because
they seem such great breaks or %crevasses
in the banks that control, or should control
and quicken the current of trade, that
others sink into insignifcance in compari:
SON, and are not worthy to be considered
in this connection.
The first in magnitude but least regard
ed is to he found in the operations of the
financial system of the General Govern.
ment. In the midst of the strain and
pressure of the late war between the States
the General Government was driven to the
necessity of inaugurating the present sys-
tenn. This system would have been life.
less and barren of results, had there not
been inserted in it a poisonous ingredient
that would kill all banks of issue conduct
ed under State charters. A tax of 10 per
cent. per annum was imposed on the cir
culation of State banks. 1t ought to have
been called q penalty instead of q tar'
The poison had the desired effect. The
circulation of all State banks was at once
called in-the State banks were converted
into National banks, and the currency be-
came one, and made legal tender or equiv.
alent thereto. AS a war measure it may
be defended. But the reason that made
this provision excusable has long since
drifted into the dead past. AS an econom.
ic measure in times of peace, for a free
people it is utterly indefensible. 1t has
broken up every centre of trade in the
Union but one, and that is New York
Charleston, of our State, was once a centre
of trade, and was one at the opening o.
hostilities. But now the current OF trade
washes around and through Charleston
like the waves of the sea wash around ano
through a battered and stranded ship
of hundreds of millions of Treasury notes
and hundreds of millions of Irrational bank
notes and all the money influences follow
ing in their train, is concentrated and cen
tralized at New York. That is the apex
of centre of the great revolving maelstron
| of the financial system. All other cities
and towns in the Union are but OutpOsts OF
receiving deposits. The huge fortunes
built up in a few years by individuals ir
and about New York, by some mysterious
and invisible process is the proof of a deer
seated disease in the body economic. A
few men by combination get control of this
irresistible money power, and can, and &c
depress and elevate the prices of agricul'
tural products at their pleasure. A corner
las it is called) is made in wheat, or bacon,
or lard, or cotton {; and when the corner is
dissolved and the smoke clears away II
will be discovered that the unlucky pro
! ducer has barely escaped insolvency or has
, become a bankrupt, while Il small syndl'
cate at the centre has PANIED out one, OF
five, or maybe, ten millions of dollars. II
is here that the profits of farming so faI
as the producer is concerned drop out, and
it is in he hands of these giant combina-
lions, made possible by this vicious sys'
tenn, that these profits lodge. The farmer
has no more influence in fixing the prices
of his products against this powerful com
bination than an infant has in resisting OF
directing a cyclone. Nor does the real
value of the products tend to fix theirprice,
It is all artificial and is disastrous tc
healthy economic life. The bulls and
bears have no reputation for morality
and any one of item would not hesitate
to wreck a million Of farmers if thereby
he could make a clear million of dollars,
The financial system of the government
places the whole productive energies OF
the country at the mercy of ruthless, un'
conscientious and frenzied gamblers.
Andrew Jackson, the man of clear heao
and iron will and patriotic heart, saw in
his time the power of centralized capital
and the wicked destructive uses to which
it could be subjected, in the United States
Bank, and he turned the whole force O
his intellect and will and popularity
against it and destroyed it. He was 6
giant in his day, but the teachings of hi;
most pronounced conduct as Presidenl
and as patriarch of Democracy has faded
from the memory and minds of this gen
oration Rnt what WAS the mower of the